Parallels offers Upgrade to Windows 7 as VMWare issues Fusion 3.1

VMWare's Fusion has been updated to version 3.1, adding feature and performance improvements to the virtualization solution for running the Microsoft Windows operating system within Mac OS X.

Fusion 3.1 upgrade ready

VMWare's Fusion 3.1 virtualization software is emerging from beta as a free upgrade to existing 3.0 users. Registered owners can download the update by selecting "Check for Updates" in the VMware Fusion menu of version 3.0. Earlier versions can be upgraded for $40 while the full version costs $80.

Fusion 3.1 also supports OpenGL 2.1 when running Windows Vista or 7, and boasts nearly 4x speed boost in 2D graphics and up to a five-fold increase in 3D graphics performance. Autodesk supports the software for use with the currently Windows-only AutoCAD 2011.

VMWare also calls Fusion 3.1 "the fastest, easiest, and least expensive way to migrate your entire PC to a Mac. VMware Fusion 3.1 includes all of the software you need to make the switch without the 25% added cost of a special one-time use cable. VMware Fusions highly optimized PC Migration Assistant is up to 4x faster than other Switch to Mac offerings."

The new Fusion 3.1 also supports larger virtual machines, with support for eight-way Symmetric Multiprocessing on machines with multiple cores, and larger virtual disks up to 2TB. The new update also adds support for new versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4, Novell SUSE Linux 11 SP1, Ubuntu 8.0.4.4 and Ubuntu 10.04.

I will always be grateful to Parallels. It allowed me to use my Macs instead of having a dedicated Window computer for my real estate business...

I was an original beta user and paid for every upgrade to 4.O...but now I'm down to using Parallels for one program which is to update my real estate e-key....which I can do with a 'telephone land line' (whatever that is!)

So, so long old friend! And good riddance to any MS POS on my mac! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I will always be grateful to Parallels. It allowed me to use my Macs instead of having a dedicated Window computer for my real estate business...

I was an original beta user and paid for every upgrade to 4.O...but now I'm down to using Parallels for one program which is to update my real estate e-key....which I can do with a 'telephone land line' (whatever that is!)

So, so long old friend! And good riddance to any MS POS on my mac! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I am in the same boat. I only need to use Windows for two engineering software that are Windows XP only. I am also using Office on Windows because of my dissertation template, which have problems with the Mac version.

I can't wait for the next testing to be done to determine which one of these two virtualization apps is the king of speed. I know Parallels 5 had the upper hand but I wonder if that is still the case now?

Fusion for me. I tried Parallels, but came back to Fusion. 3.1's desktop graphics score dropped to 3.9 from 4.2 on the experience index, but the gaming graphics score jumped to 4.6 from 3.4. Good enough for me.

I am in the same boat. I only need to use Windows for two engineering software that are Windows XP only. I am also using Office on Windows because of my dissertation template, which have problems with the Mac version.

I feel for you... whenever I have to update my eKey I have to restart windows XP in Parallels and then unplug my usb eKey, unplug my pwr cable and then start the antiquated update program that looks like something from windows 3.0 and then maybe it will update on the second or third try...pretty frustrating when you're late for an appointment. Which I usually am!

Agreed but to be fair the MLS systems here in AZ are now Safari compatible...but as you say the eKey/lockbox system is still in the '80's! It is so frustrating.

I'm used to the macs/iphones and yet I feel I'm setting my VCR or something when it comes to these damn eKeys!

Oh well, good luck in FL, I'm in AZ which is the epicenter of the real estate downturn.

Hard to believe five states in the US have brought the world economy to its knees! With a little help from Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and the rest,

You heard of the rat race? Well the rats (Goldman Sachs) have won it!

Best

Oh if only our MFR was supported on a Mac! What bliss that would be. We can't even use Firefox on the PC, it has to be IE, no exceptions.

This area is seeing healthy signs of recovery TG, we were probably very early into the debacle and as always hoped, one of the early ones crawling out. The sales board at Michael Saunders & Co is very active this year. Personally though we are still hurting badly unfortunately.

Totally agree on the causes! The level of greed here in 05 was staggering as everyone and their dog became a real estate 'investor' buying multiple homes to flip. Of course, absent the ludicrous appraisals and banks lending to anything that could breath these idiots would have never been able to do this. I lost count of asking people if they had every played musical chairs.

Good luck in AZ

From Apple ][ - to new Mac Pro I've owned them all.Long on AAPL so biased"Google doesn't sell you anything, Google just sells you!"

I'm a little confused: I bought both Parallels 5.0 and Windows 7 (separately) in December and have been running both since then

I think this is for XP users wanting a painless path to upgrade to 7, like you I simply bought 7 and installed in Parallels 5 so you and I have no use for the upgrade ... please correct me if I am wrong anyone.

The update to VMWare on the other hand sounds more like the next phase in playing Leap Frog with Parallels 5 and perhaps will be faster? I am not allowed a second installation of 7 on the same Mac with the modern M$ protection system so I can't really test. I so look forward to never having to care ... I will miss Windows usage like a bad case of the flu. No, I take that back I'd take the flu in a heart beat over having to ever use Windows again

From Apple ][ - to new Mac Pro I've owned them all.Long on AAPL so biased"Google doesn't sell you anything, Google just sells you!"

Now that Apple is the "biggest" tech company in the world, I'm looking forward to the day I don't need these products. The only thing I need a Windows installation for is to test websites in Internet Explorer.

Problem is, you can't install IE7 and IE8 on the same machine, so I have to keep TWO Parallels installations, which use 10GB each, take around 15 minutes to launch and suspend, and are unusably slow if both are running together. So if I tweak a website and want to give it a quick look in the two browsers, it's at least a half hour process. If one looks okay, then I see a problem in another, then I want to go back and re-check the first one, I can easily go crazy.

At least my clients don't make me support IE6 anymore. And I rarely need to customize CSS for IE8.

Now that Apple is the "biggest" tech company in the world, I'm looking forward to the day I don't need these products. The only thing I need a Windows installation for is to test websites in Internet Explorer.

Problem is, you can't install IE7 and IE8 on the same machine, so I have to keep TWO Parallels installations, which use 10GB each, take around 15 minutes to launch and suspend, and are unusably slow if both are running together. So if I tweak a website and want to give it a quick look in the two browsers, it's at least a half hour process. If one looks okay, then I see a problem in another, then I want to go back and re-check the first one, I can easily go crazy.

At least my clients don't make me support IE6 anymore. And I rarely need to customize CSS for IE8.

some of my clients are still running ie6! your going to love me for this! google ietester and try it. it changed by life! and then donate to them!

I'm a little confused: I bought both Parallels 5.0 and Windows 7 (separately) in December and have been running both since then

The Parallels Upgrade to Windows 7 is a PC Application to help users wanting to upgrade from XP or Vista to Windows 7 without having to do a custom install (format). It's not made for Mac OS, as you point out you can run Windows 7 under any version of Parallels since v4.

Oh if only our MFR was supported on a Mac! What bliss that would be. We can't even use Firefox on the PC, it has to be IE, no exceptions.

This area is seeing healthy signs of recovery TG, we were probably very early into the debacle and as always hoped, one of the early ones crawling out. The sales board at Michael Saunders & Co is very active this year. Personally though we are still hurting badly unfortunately.

Totally agree on the causes! The level of greed here in 05 was staggering as everyone and their dog became a real estate 'investor' buying multiple homes to flip. Of course, absent the ludicrous appraisals and banks lending to anything that could breath these idiots would have never been able to do this. I lost count of asking people if they had every played musical chairs.

Hmm... I have Fusion 2.0 right now, and I rarely actually use it. Generally the only thing I do under Windoze is gaming and Fusion has been completely inadequate for that up to this point. My XP install on my Mac Pro is running like a dog these days, so I'm actually thinking of buying 7 and the new Fusion to see if I can play some Windoze games from within Mac OS X.

I'm holding out hope that less demanding games like Civ 4 or Anarchy Online may be playable. Maybe even something a bit more demanding like Oblivion or Fallout 3, but I'm assuming that seriously stressing games like Dragon Age definitely won't run. I guess my biggest hope is that Star Wars: The Old Republic makes it to the Mac as a native app, same goes for Civ 5, and the Fallout 3 sequel.

Two of the leading solutions for running Microsoft's Windows operating system within Mac OS X received new feature improvements over the past week, including Parallel's Upgrade to Windows 7 to VMWare's Fusion 3.1.

Great article. However, it is worth noting that Parallel's Desktop Upgrade to Windows 7 is not an upgrade to nor improvement of Parallel's Desktop 5 (the VM for Mac comparable to VMWare's Fusion 3.1) but rather an entirely separate product meant for use on a PC to help those upgrading to Windows 7 from XP or Vista. Thus the two products are not truly comparable.
Just a thought...

At the moment I only use it for Quicken, I have an older version of Quicken which doesn't run under Vista so I have it running under XP Pro in VirtualBox. They don't support the fancy Quicken bank features here so no need to waste money upgrading to something else.

There were a few other tools I used to have it for as well, but I have either got Mac versions now, stopped using them. It is a little processor hungry, I have the 2.16GHz C2D iMac with 3GB RAM, and it will use around half the processor.

I have run some simple games under it as well (didn't try any large ones), but I purchased a Dell Optiplex from the refurb store so didn't need to anymore.